2 Policemen Save 3 From Fire

Two Chicago police officers were credited Monday with rescuing three people, including a 92-year-old woman, from a burning West Side house.

The officers were unable to reach an 85-year-old man, whose body was found later in the attic of the 1 1/2 story house at 2905 W. Jackson Blvd.

``They are heroes,`` Police Lt. John Griffith, of the Harrison District, said of Patrolmen Carlos Aulet and Luis Munoz.

After the rescue, Aulet was admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital in fair condition, suffering from smoke inhalation. Munoz, his partner, was treated there for smoke inhalation. Griffith said both will be recommended for police department commendations.

``They were driving by and saw the flames and smoke, so they got on the police radio and called for the fire department and assist (backup police)

squads,`` Griffith said.

``They ran into the house and escorted people out. They were forced to leave beause of the dense smoke.

``When they were outside, the tenants told them there was an old man upstairs. Aulet ran back in but was unable to get upstairs because of the dense smoke and intense heat. What they did was way beyond what was expected of them.``

Those rescued were Daisy Milam, 92; Marcus Clark, 62; and James Hunter, 45. The dead man was identified as McKinley Shaw.

Detectives from the police bomb and arson unit said the fire began about 6:30 a.m. Monday, either in a refrigerator on the first floor or in the electrical wiring in the wall behind the refrigerator. The flames spread up through the walls and engulfed the building.

Jerry Lawrence, a fire department spokesman, said the building was not equippped with smoke detectors, as required by city law.

Also on Monday, Waukegan officials were attempting to learn how Lt. Franklin W. Mercer, 45, died Sunday while fighting a fire in a two-story frame house and seeking to determine the cause of the fire.

Mercer was the first firefighter to die in the line of duty in Waukegan`s 133-year history.

Two other firefighters sent to the burning house suffered minor injuries in the blaze.

Mercer, a 15-year fire department veteran, died after he and two other firefighters had carried a hose up a stairway to the second floor of the burning house at 721 McAlister Ave.

Mercer fell from the second floor to the first. A hole was found later in the second story floor. But Fire Chief Richard Kamerad said the smoke was so dense that no one saw if Mercer fell through the hole, if the flooring gave way under him, or if something else happened.

After falling, Mercer climbed out a first floor window and then collapsed. The firefighters who had been with him escaped down the stairs, authorities said.

Kamerad said it may take weeks to establish the cause of death. He said Mercer suffered spinal injuries, but they were not serious enough to cause death. Nor did Mercer have enough carbon monoxide in his lungs to cause death, Kamerad said.

No one was inside the house when the fire began early Sunday.

Mercer had been a firefighter at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center before joining the Waukegan Fire Department in 1970. He is survived by his wife, Paula; a son, Frank; a daughter, Jeneen; five brothers; and four sisters. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the chapel at 1521 Washington St., Waukegan.

Another fire Sunday night left 20 people homeless when a fire spread through a three-story, six-flat apartment building at 4821-23 S. St. Lawrence Ave.

Fire department officials said three families lived in the partially boarded-up structure. An adjacent building at 4825 S. St. Lawrence Ave. also was damaged.